Carbon credits potentially linked to Uyghur forced labour

The largest carbon consultancy, South Pole, has sold carbon credits from the Bachu Carbon Project to huge companies like BP and Spotify for years. Alarmingly, a recent investigation has exposed its potential link to coercive labour involving the Uyghur community.

The ambiguous mechanics and overall effectiveness of carbon credit schemes often come into question, but ethical misgivings are creating an even greater headache.

One such project located in Xinjiang, China, claimed to lower global emissions using waste cotton stalks from surrounding farmland to generate electricity. BP and Spotify are among several global entities that offset carbon emissions using its carbon credits.

Owned by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy firm, it’s said in promotional materials that this project is a boon for the local economy, creates additional income for the region’s farmers, and obviously generates power sustainably. Sounds good on paper, right?

The potential reality discovered by The Guardian and Dutch investigative news outlet Follow The Money, however, paints a vastly different picture.